ohgoodness

It surely is as explicit as can be but that does not mean it's very explicit. The point remain that it takes alot more than just sitting down and writing your SOP. I'm applying from a MA, very strongly focused on research, and I remain rather uncertain about the things that I point out and the things that I leave out.

Honestly this does not reflect an explicit statement of what a school wants in the letter. It is vague, non-descript and leaves anyone pondering the actual qualities of ones background, future, research and how those fit to where you are applying. Many of the programs that I am applying to have that sort of description for the SOP and it really is a great challenge. Not only do I need to boil down my entire background into a 5 line paragraph, "selling myself" whilst being focused on the future, but I also need to write a statement that is interesting, relaxed and easy to follow. And obviously in your quote - there is plenty of room for mixing in personal history - you just gotta do the right way and make it relevant in your purpose. In my case - personal history is the glue that holds all the parts together. You write a draft, look it over and wonder "is this it?" and then start over again. And then you start asking questions to anyone who went through the same process. It sure never gets easy. (and some of us do second-guess ourselves constantly..)

Willing to strike up a NSA relation by commenting on statement of purpose if you do the same for me. Inbox if you feel for it.

Not academic as such. It is rather my subjective of that school based on the fact that lots of hip young Europeans go there, spend a couple of years in London and then end up with nothing much to show for it. It's a preachin-to-the-choir kind of place.

There's a reason he's at Goldsmiths...

It is an interesting idea but to my ears - radicalizing sociology and making it more accessible to the public would be opposite in a graduate program where the focus is on research. I see such work either becoming increasingly theoretical within the fields of elites, power, organization etc to a point where you would attend conference simply to debate the meaning of x in the context of y. Or you would end up studying "grass roots" in action. Either way - as someone who finds Albert Jay Nock to be an daily inspiration - if our paths ever cross and you confuse anarchism for occupy then jostling shall commence. Finally to answer your real question - I doubt anyone find this to be offensive or unworthy of scholarly pursuit. Being accepted to change sociology, however, might need a very fine statement of purpose...

You need to bring out your skills and experiences much more clearly. Being hidden in language wont do you much good

Too late to give input but I scored rather low on the quant as well: 152 and was told by my senior advisor (from one of the top10s) that it could become a worry since most of people applying to top10s arrive with scores within the 90th percentile. I'm am applying to social demography/life course which tends to be quant-heavy but the comment was "The quantitative percentile seems low to me, even for students who would not be doing quantitative work.". The recommendation was to ask my letter writers to address this and say that it does not reflect their overall judgement of my skills and if possible - do a retake! This whole GRE thing is just uh..

I'm applying from Europe as well and the advice given to me was to make sure that my letter writters should have preferably be "well-known" in the states and able to translate my skills into an american context when writing my reference letter. I was also told to distinguish myself through the GRE/TOEFL (I thought 110+) since it could be hard to translate ECTS to A's and B's (for those reading my transcript). The most positive thing I got was that my understanding of Europe and it's social issues might bring a real edge to my application, in terms of what I could be able to do as a researcher, and to try and let it shine through within my statement letters. Regarding your grades in Canada, look at the requirements for Toronto to see where you stand: Degree of Master of Arts (M.A.) Applicants must have taken at least the equivalent of five full-year courses in Sociology and have a four-year B.A. or its equivalent. They must also have at least an overall B+ average in each of the last two years of post-secondary education. Applicants are also expected to have acquired basic research and statistical skills. Degree of Doctor of Philosophy(Ph.D.) An applicant must hold an M.A. degree in Sociology or a related field, and must have attained an overall average of at least A-. All students must demonstrate that their M.A., or equivalent, included course work equivalent to Classical Social Theory, Social Statistics, and Qualitative Methods I. If students do not have courses equivalent to those three courses, they will be required to take these courses in addition to the regular Ph.D. requirements.

Hi everyone, Let me just first thank everyone for a great, great forum and resource throughout the application process. I just managed to get over my "greatest" (self-perceived) hindrance for getting into a grad programme by taking the GRE today and getting a prel. score of 157 (Q), 162 (V) so I figured that I would reach out and be more active in this community. Now I am taking aim at perfecting my statement letters and was starting to think about how much an international applicant should focus on the fact that they are bringing experiences, understanding and "links" of/to other contexts than the U.S. Obviously most of the sociology programmes are extremely international in their scope and faculty but I was given the advice that I should seriously bring out the fact that I am European. I was thus interested in finding out whether anyone has any input regarding this? first-hand experience or so? Interrelated to this is what you guys think about bringing an MA degree from a top European program? Is this something that will greatly influence ones chances? Since most people tend to introduce themselves - as will I! am currently completing a MA program in demography in Europe and have intentions to apply for several demography and sociological programs (specialized in life course, family sociology and inequality). Undergraduate GPA 3,40 Graduate GPA 3,70. Strong LORs and relevant job experience (research ass. in demography). Thanks in advance